Ejection is personal foul on fan

Dick McClure has missed but a handful of Pacific men's basketball home games since he was 12 years old.

Bob Highfill

Dick McClure has missed but a handful of Pacific men's basketball home games since he was 12 years old.

Now 57, that probably puts the number of games he's witnessed at Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium and Spanos Center at 500.

On Monday, something happened for the first time to McClure, a 1978 Pacific graduate, longtime booster and the director of architectural marketing for the Woodwork Institute. He was asked to leave Spanos Center at halftime of the Pacific-Oral Roberts game by the on-court officials. They didn't like the comments he directed at them.

"I was on them pretty good, but I was not belligerent," McClure said. "I do not drink. I was not obscene. There were other people around me saying the same things."

It all started prior to tipoff; McClure said he saw an official fist-pumping, laughing and patting the shoulder of an Oral Roberts' player, a no-no in McClure's unofficial book on officiating etiquette. The crew for Monday's game commonly works the Southland Conference, of which Oral Roberts is a member. The game was the home-and-home continuation of an ESPN BracketBuster between the Tigers and Golden Eagles played in 2011 at the Mabee Center in Tulsa, Okla. ESPN mandates the visiting team supply the officials.

McClure "voiced" his opinion to the officials about the fraternizing and "commented" on several of their calls thereafter, as he is wont to do. Dick is, let's say, passionate about Pacific. He repeatedly called one of the officials "Phantom" because McClure said the official couldn't have possibly seen a call he made against the Tigers given his position on the court. McClure said he also complimented the officials several times for making what he viewed as good calls.

During the sub-4-minute media timeout, the officials huddled at the scorer's table and asked Pacific to warn McClure. Pacific associate director of athletics for development, Jim Dugoni, delivered the warning. McClure voiced more objections after being warned. At halftime, the officials huddled at the scorer's table again and Pacific athletic director Ted Leland told McClure that he had to leave the arena.

Leland, whose 40-year resume as a college coach and administrator includes a 14-year stint as the athetlic director at Stanford (think he hasn't seen it all?), said he feels bad for McClure, whom he called a "great fan."

"That's the first time I've ever seen that happen," Leland said. "And I've been in some really tough environments and that certainly wasn't the case last night."

From what I could see, at no time was McClure profane or belligerent. In 40 years of attending and nearly 20 years covering Pacific basketball, I've never seen McClure use profanity, act belligerently or appear to be inebriated. I've been to plenty of sports events where fans acted much more rudely than McClure and weren't asked to leave the game.

The contest on the court was entertaining. Both teams played hard and Oral Roberts prevailed 69-67. Maybe the officials could hear McClure because the crowd was so disappointingly small - only 1,430 in 6,150-seat Spanos Center.

Some back story is in order.

McClure's father, Ralph, was the Babe Ruth of vociferous fans. Ralph had season tickets in the front row at the Civic Auditorium, often with his son by his side. When Ralph wasn't stomping his feet on the well-worn wooden floor, the tips of his shoes actually rested inside the sideline of the court because of the auditorium's cramped configuration. Ralph's sometimes ruthless verbal shots at the officials and the opposing team rang through the auditorium.

Dick McClure said he doesn't remember his father ever being asked to leave a game in the 40 or so years he attended them. Ralph passed away in 2002 at age 79.

McClure picked up where his father left off. But if Ralph was the Babe Ruth of the leather lungs, his son is more like the Frank Robinson. McClure has cleared the fence a bunch of times, but his dad was a dagger-mouthed legend.

McClure's seat at Spanos Center isn't even on the floor. It's at mid-court in the first row behind a guard rail with a row of folding chairs on the court in front of him. He's actually about 8 feet from the sideline.

Seated on the court in front of McClure on Monday was Ron Addington, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of San Joaquin. Addington has attended Pacific games for years and has been on the board of the Pacific Athletic Foundation for about 10 years. He currently is president of the PAF. He said he doesn't believe McClure should have been removed from the game.

"There was no (profane) language of any sort, zero," Addington said. "When I found out the three referees were from Oklahoma I thought, 'How did that happen?' Referees are human, but they seemed a little in favor of Oral Roberts. I love the university and they have a fabulous basketball team, very aggressive, very fast, but I thought the calls were a little out of whack. But I'm Pacific, too."

On Tuesday, McClure said he was puzzled more than angry about what had happened. He said he will continue to attend Pacific games and help support the program, and sees no reason not to call it like he sees it.

"I'm still going to be out there to support them because I think (Pacific head coach) Bob Thomason and the Pacific program is so laudable on the good things they do: the graduation rates and running a clean program.